Sadie coles hq, 31 jan – 29 feb 2020

I saw this exhibition briefly when me and Cosmo travelled around London on 5th Feb, visiting current exhibitions and galleries that had temporary shows. I was interested in this work because of his use of spinning LED Hologram fan projectors named HYPERVSN. This is a relatively new type of 3D hologram, and what’s more interesting is that EMS at university has one that can be used by the students. This allows me to see how the equipment can be used in a exhibition setting so that if in the future I want to use it in my work, then the possibility is there. I was also peaked by the title of the exhibition, the use and the applied context behind the words ‘Artists’, ‘Friends’ and specifically ‘Racists’.

the artist

the works

Jordan Wolfson presents a new installation consisting of multiple HYPERVSN 3D holographic displays. Arranged in a grid, these devices project a range of imagery developed by the artist to create a multipart digital mirage, alternately synchronized and syncopated. The exhibition also features a series of wall-mounted brass panels overlaid by snapshot photographs from Wolfson’s childhood. 

In ARTISTS FRIENDS RACISTS, Wolfson continues to probe American culture and contemporary life through an eponymously titled work which utilizes cutting-edge holographic display technology. Rapidly spinning fans have micro LEDs embedded in their blades, and these illuminate in a precise manner to create the illusion of imagery floating in space. The devices have primarily been marketed for commercial use – as a means of luring consumers and presenting brands and products in a visually dynamic and novel way.

Also on view are a series of new wall-mounted brass panels featuring UV substrate prints of photographs from Wolfson’s childhood. Part of the artist’s ongoing series of sculptural objects mounted to the wall, these new panels are the most personal that Wolfson has created to date. In contrast to the advanced digital technology of the fans, the brass panels allude to ancient metallurgy, classical sculpture, and the radiant, gilded surfaces of churches and altarpieces from the Middle Ages. Isolated on the surface of the brass, the childhood snapshots attain a surreal aura while also being intimately linked to the artist’s own past and to the universal experience of nostalgia mediated through photographic imagery.

Wolfson’s work consists of fans programmed with animated characters, symbols, and words, including a cartoon heart, a puppy, and an imprisoned cat, among other imagery. Thematically structuring the visual display are a series of animated words that read “Artists,” “Friends,” “Racists,” which crash down intermittently. At times Wolfson’s animations overlay different photographs and video clips, some of which appear relatively innocuous—such as cookies—while others depict more overtly charged subjects, such as police cars and 9/11 firefighters. Viewed within the space of the gallery, the sequence plays out like a choreographed dance or a musical composition, with imagery at times synchronized—with multiple fans featuring the same projection—and at others times syncopated and incongruous. The visuals and animations appear immaterial and free-floating, as though superimposed over the material, physical world. At once enigmatic, comical, and disquieting, the presentation highlights how symbols, characters, and even language have achieved a life of their own in today’s advanced image economy, existing like specters that reach beyond the confines of the media and systems in which they circulate.

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